This book explores violence against the environment within the broad scope of transnational environmental crime (TEC): its extent, perpetrators, and responses. TEC has become one of the greatest threats to environmental and human security today, as well as a lucrative enterprise and a mode of life in many regions of the world. Transnational Spheres of Ecoviolence argues that we cannot seriously consider stopping TEC without also promoting environmental (and climate) justice. The spheres covered range from wildlife and plant crime to illegal fisheries to toxic waste and climate crime. These acts of violence against the environment are both localized in terms of event and impact, and globalized in terms of market drivers and internationalized responses. Because it is so often intimately linked to political violence, coerced labor, economic and physical displacement, and development opportunity costs, ecoviolence must be viewed primarily as a human security issue; the fight against it must derive legitimacy from impacts on local communities, and be twinned wth the protection of environmental activists. Reliance on the generosity of distant corporations or the effectiveness of legal structures will not be adequate; and militarized responses may do more harm to human security than good to nature. A transformative approach to transnational ecoviolence is a very complex task affected by the geopolitics of neoliberalism, authoritarian states, rebel factions and extremists, socio-economic patterns, and many other factors. In this challenging text, the authors capture this complexity in digestible form and offer a wide-ranging discussion of commensurate policy recommendations for governments and the general public.
Author(s): Peter Stoett, Delon Alain Omrow
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 302
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgments
Reference
Contents
List of Figures
1 Transnational Ecoviolence and Crime: Revisiting Environmental Justice and Human Security
Introduction
Defining Violence
Agential and Structural Ecoviolence
Environmental Justice and Human Security
What Is Transnational Ecoviolence and Crime?
Moving Forward: Spheres of Transnational Ecoviolence
Conclusion
References
2 Ecoviolence Against Fauna: The Illegal Wildlife Trade
Introduction
The Contemporary IWT
The Architects of Ecoviolence
Global Responses to the IWT
The Illegal Trade of Turtles
The Illegal Trade of Pangolins
The Illegal Trade of Hyacinth Macaws
Syncretic Analysis: The Seed-Finch’s Song of Freedom
Conclusion
References
3 The Transnationalization of Hazardous Waste
Introduction
Conceptualizing Hazardous Waste
Canada and the Global Waste Trade
Waste Disposal in the United States
Transnational Waste and the Eco-Mafia
Syncretic Analysis: Investor-State Dispute Settlements (ISDS)
Conclusion
References
4 Transnational Oceanic Ecoviolence
Introduction
What Is IUU Fishing?
Environmental Justice and Reduction Fisheries
Human Security and Sea Slavery
Syncretic Analysis: IUU on the West African Coast
Conclusion
References
5 Floral Transnational Ecoviolence
Introduction
Conceptualizing Forest, Timber, and Plant Crime
Dudleya Poaching and Trading
The Transnationalization of the Ginseng Trade
Human Security and Floral Transnational Ecoviolence in Peru
Syncretic Analysis: Mexico’s “Avocado Republics”
Conclusion
References
6 From Petty Fraud to Global Injustice: Climate Ecoviolence
Introduction
And Justice for All?
Conceptualizing Climate Ecoviolence
Chlorofluorocarbon Trade
Perverse Consequences: Green Land Grabs and Conflict Minerals
Human Security and Climate Change in Turkey
Syncretic Analysis: The Wildfires in Australia
Conclusion
References
7 Responses to Transnational Ecoviolence and Crime
Introduction
States and Markets
Militarized Responses
The Protection of Environmental Activists
High Tech Approaches
International Efforts
INTERPOL and NESTs
Two Quick Examples: Predator and Wisdom
International Courts, Real and Imagined
Earth Jurisprudence
Conclusion
References
References
Index
